We talk often about the principles that underlie THPL and how they are important to what THPL stands for – higher and higher performance for each of us. And as much as we understand and live to the vision, the one thing that transcends our principles is that each member of the community has their own free choice to live their version of THPL as they see fit. And so it was interesting and maybe even disturbing to see that France, yes, the country that limits work to 35 hours per week has now created a rule that forbids workers from checking their phones or computers for email or work stuff after 6 p.m., and it also forbids employers from pressuring them to do so.

I am not sure what is being accomplished by such a rule. To legislate how employees live and work is an affront to people and the choices that they should be free to make. We all have heard about the 10,000 hour mark, written about by Malcolm Gladwell, whereby we get to a level of mastery when we have put in a significant amount of effort. And this we know is a very good thing. Why would we want to limit what employees, students, citizens or any one of us do for that matter? What good could come from taking away their opportunity to choose how they engage with work and their life more broadly. We know that there is no need to mandate and control and little benefit can come from it. We really are way better off when we empower, believe in and support ourselves and everyone around us. This gets us to consistently better performance and happier people time after time.